Budget (Avon) DD on bank statement

Suewi236

I have been caught with this one also. I gotta say i think Buzby's smug attitude sucks, people do miss things and I'm afraid i dont know what its like to be perfect!

The ONLY lesson to take away from this is even if what you are doing online is genuine and legitimate, there will always be some crafty individual or organisation trying to make a buck out of you so be on the look out. At the time this happened to us (my husbands insurance) we were cancelling one policy and taking out another and initially i thought nothing of it on our statement as i just assumed it was the final payment for the previous insurance.

The point is this is done in an underhand fashion, the amount is such that you wont notice it, and clearly the same can be said about the preselected tick box otherwise so many people would not have missed it (i'm sure there are many more people out there who have missed it that are not signed up to this forum!). I am very particular about checking tick boxes on websites because of the crap you get in the mail and over the phone if you're not careful, but clearly I missed this one.

So to anyone out there who has been caught, no matter how long it has been going on, take action once you notice it!

Thank you to the person who originally posted this with the telephone number - that was a very helpful post!

mug2007

Oops I've been caught out by this one too, luckily the phone number for Avon Insurance appears on my Barclay credit card statement next to the transaction so it was easy to ring them up and cancel. Apparently I agreed to this when I signed up to my Halifax car insurance. I don't think I had really spotted earlier as it was only £4 a month. I finally noticed it and cancelled it today after 13 payments amounting to £52. Looking on the bright side they were planning to take the payments until I was 70 and by that time they would have taken £1728 of my hard earned cash.

hushpuppy

I too fell foul of this 'offer' which was tied into an RAC Policy that I took out in September 2012. I have today spoken to Avon who transferred me to the RAC, who explained that in order to get this additional insurance I would have had to complete the payment details at the same time as I paid for my car insurance. For this reason they would not uphold my complaint.

I then explained that I had adequate insurance in place at the time elsewhere and that I had not received any documentation from Avon or the RAC detailing this additional insurance. As a result the CS rep offered a full refund for all the payments made.

Avon contact number is 01789 415050.

Good luck everyone

sandifoot

I also spotted £4 deduction for Avon insurance a few days ago and looked it up on this forum and when I checked back on my bank account it had been going on for 19 months:eek:. Anyway I followed the instructions and spoke to customer relations who put me through to Bradford and Bingley insurance where I had unwittingly signed up for this insurance and bingo got all my payments back £76 back in my back yesterday. I am so pleased and now the policy has been cancelled. I am usually pretty careful on these type of things but it can happen to the best of us. Customer service from everyone was top notch and thanks for all the previous posters for great info and advice

heritageboy

Googled Budget Avon £4.00 and thanks to this forum gave Avon a call and spoke to a helpful chap who passed me to Budget Customer Services. I told him I wouldn't have taken personal accident policy out as I'm already covered under life insurance.. another helpful chap called Kevin promised to refund me 53 payments of £4.00 which equates to £212. These payments dated back to Dec '09 - I took a contents insurance policy out with Budget in May that year and the personal accident insurance kicked in after 6mths free period. I didn't get angry, just let them know I was p*ssed off with the tone of my voice .

J_Whtrz

I just saw this DD come out of my account, had never noticed it before. Rang 01789 415 050 and they said it was personal accident protection taken out when I took out house insurance.

They said they could cancel it for me, but I demanded a refund, as it looks like the payments had been coming out for about a year and a half.

She said she could put me through to the customer care team but then tried to put me off with some guff about them having to "start an investigation" if I wanted a refund - turns out that when they put me through I didn't need to even ask for a refund, they offered it. So they're obviously been in trouble for this before. They said I applied for it through a pre-ticked box that was on my online application form.

Pre ticked!!! Cheeky !!!!!!s!!!!!

tbones

Well I must hold the record for being a numpty. I have been pying this for some time now and when I phoned to complain it transpires it is something I have had since 1990!!!!! I have only really just taken notice of it as I am closing down my bank account and I was told of this payment along with all my other payments.. I had been paying around £3 a month. They said they will investigate it all for me and will get back to me.. I will keep you all posted to see how I get on

Scots

Glad to hear that the thread has helped some people.

It's definitely a scam in my opinion. Most of those caught out, including myself had no idea what the payment was actually for. So even if they had some problem they wouldn't have made a claim on the insurance because they didn't know they had it.
It's a despicable way to run any business treating customers like idiots. Eventually you get found out, lose customers and hopefully get a massive fine off the regulator. Surely would be much better being up front with people and explain exactly what is going on and make sure they fully understand before signing them up.

nickwantscake

bartyharty wrote: »

Thanks to this Forum I have been able to investigate and solve the same problem.
I bought a Home and Contents policy on-line in 2013 with Budget Insurance.
I noticed an erroneous £3.99 going to Budget Avon via DD monthly.
It was for a Personal Accident Policy I had neither requested or received any documents for!
Following a VERY heated exchange with an unhelpful Avon employee (who insisted that I had asked for the policy) I was transferred to Budget Customer Services. The gentleman was very calm and efficient and immediately refunded all of the payments and cancelled the policy.
Following my experience I would advise people to state the following-

You didn't need the policy
You did not opt into the policy-it was pre-applied
You want a full refund

I hope my success is repeated!

Your success was repeated. My experience was exactly the same and thanks to your comment and the comments on this thread I have been refunded for 45 payments of £4.


What I would like to add is a request that people keep their cool when speaking to the first point of contact on the number provided in previous comments (01789 415050).


There have been several comments on this thread about the first person spoken to being unhelpful.


The person you get through to first will almost certainly not have the authority to refund you and needs to gather relevant information before they can put you through to the people who can.


I have worked in such roles, they are just trying to do their jobs and it is not that they are trying to be unhelpful they have rules to follow and they are monitored very very closely, the calls are all recorded and will be randomly assessed, their jobs are on the line on EVERY call.


If you do not provide all the information they require the people who you actually want to speak to will refuse to take the transfer leaving you stuck with the first person who has no other option but to say I can't help you.


Be nice but be firm, state your case clearly and succinctly, follow bartyharty's advice and if my experience is anything to go by you will get transferred to the Customer Relations who will not quibble at all.

Nick_Wheywell

Just experienced the same, and they were quite keen to offer a refund... is this because they may see it as a PPI claim otherwise?